Food Rescue Kitchen Project

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED PLEASE – Our Slow Food Food Rescue Kitchen needs volunteers. We operate from the Teapot Café at the Maitland Showground in a spacious, accessible and well-equipped kitchen.

The Slow Food Hunter Valley Food Rescue Kitchen (FRK), now in its eighth year, is an ever-evolving project as it responds to changing community needs. 

The FRK works with OzHarvest to convert “rescued food”, i.e. safe and edible food which would otherwise be discarded, into nutritious meals for those in the community requiring food assistance. Local farmers and growers also contribute excess food. Due to various factors, starting with the Covid pandemic, these needs have grown considerably in our local area. 

The FRK is run entirely by a dedicated band of volunteers who give their time from Mondays to Fridays to sort, clean and record, chop, sauté, roast, blanch, mix, and finally assemble tasty dishes, which are then packed ready for distribution.  St Peters Anglican Church, Salvation Army, Woodville Family Centre, and Maitland Regional Community Support (formerly the Neighbourhood Centre) are the recipients of these meals. The menus for each week are determined on Mondays, depending on the rescued food which has arrived via OzHarvest. The output this year so far has been averaging 80 kg of cooked food per week, which translates roughly to 240 meals.

In 2012 the FRK moved its operations to the CWA Teapot Café at the Maitland Showground, having finally outgrown Amorelle’s Readers Café. Some refurbishment has been required and we were lucky to have sourced most of our needs either inexpensively or through donations, although some work remains to be done. Volunteers are the heartbeat of this program and new volunteers are always needed. If you have some extra time in your week or fortnight, and would like to chop vegetables, help wash up, or cook up a storm you will be very welcome. You can call Amorelle Dempster.